The chairman of Mitchells & Butlers has admitted Joe Lewis’s shareholding
in the embattled pub group is a “challenge” as he continues the search for a
new chief executive.

Bob Ivell claimed to have had “a lot of interest” in the chief executive’s job, putting a positive spin on the role of M&B’s 23pc shareholder. “Good people like challenges and one of those, you could say, is the shareholding situation,” Mr Ivell said. “I’m not finding that people are running away from that.”

Mitchells & Butlers

The comments came as M&B unveiled positive results, with a 2.6pc increase in like-for-like sales in the year to September 24 pushing the pubs group back into the black. The company moved from a pre-tax loss of £127m in 2010 to a profit of £132m.

However, Mr Lewis – who saw a low-ball 230p a share takeover proposal rejected in September and subsequently walked away from making another offer – is understood to have reservations over the results.

Sources close to Piedmont, Mr Lewis’s investment vehicle, said his concerns focused on five areas – the lack of a dividend, a fall in operating profit margins, long-term pension obligations, higher loss exposure from interest-rate swaps, and the lack of returns generated from expansionary capital expenditure.

Talking before those concerns surfaced, Mr Ivell said: “I wouldn’t be doing this job if I didn’t think I had the backing of all shareholders.”

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Mr Lewis is barred from launching any fresh offer for M&B until mid-April and his intentions remain unclear. He had previously distanced himself from a bid but launched an opportunistic offer after M&B shares touched historic lows in the summer.

On the results, Mr Ivell said: “We see this year as a resilient set of results against a challenging background. What often gets lost is that M&B is still a very strong business. We have the site profile and the brands are proven and strong.”